


Project BAST

by Shadows_of_Fire_and_Blood



Category: Watchmen (2009), Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Charecter Study, Drabble, Friendship, Gen, Genetic Engineering, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27419290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadows_of_Fire_and_Blood/pseuds/Shadows_of_Fire_and_Blood
Summary: Adrian waits impatiently for the results.Much like a human parent awaiting the birth of its child, but Adrian would deny such humanised emotions towards a non-human, an experiment.Perhaps he should have known then just how important to him she would become.
Kudos: 5





	Project BAST

**Author's Note:**

> Note - Ive been reading ad whatever fics I could find over about a week to help inspire to with finishing this fic, I own nothing and all/any similarities to other works are not intended as copy right, credit to all original creators etc :)
> 
> Title may change at later date.

Adrian Veidt had been the one to christen the experiment project BAST.

Fitting he thought, if not ironic and mildly self-indulgent.

It had taken years to finally get to this point, an inhuman amount of research taken in and stored away; in mental form as well as computerized, not to mention the small library of note books spilling over with facts, graphs, lists and diagrams of every sort. Then there had been the handful of specialists, geneticists and consultants that had been hired and fired throughout the process until the appropriate one had been found, then the dozen or so cellular level trial runs, countless test tubes before finally the chance had been taken to try the experiment in its coveted form.

So many tries, so many failures: embryos that had never taken, others that had taken and spontaneously terminated themselves, seemingly without warning and without any definable reason.  
This time would be different.  
As he paced the white, sterile corridor Adrian Veidt, former vigilante hero ‘Ozymandias’, considered every possibility, every conceivable outcome – positive and negative – and calculated the outcome of each one three times over, if not more!

Adrian paused seconds before the door of the lab had even opened, so when it did the scientist was met with the cool, distantly expectant expression of the crime fighter turned millionaire. This particular man, dark haired and wearing the ill-fitting, standard issue white lab coat, was the only original member of Veidts’ research team, hand chosen by Veidt back when the project had first started

In the split second he awaits the news Adrians’ eidetic memory provides him the name ‘Connors’ upon recognising the man.  
“It was successful” 

The specialists statement is given with a barely contained self-pride that might have irked Adrian had he not been preoccupied with processing the information with an emotionless expression.  
Connors’ continued

“She’ll wake in a few minutes” he added

She, it was Female

Adrain accepted this as one would the daily weather announcement – it mattered little to him the gender of his experiment, so long as it had worked.  
Adrian had Connors lead him inside, though one room into a slightly smaller lab, machines were connected and then reconnected to a clear shallow box made from a sturdy, transparent textile similar to but more durable than glass of plastic. Ironically, Adrian mused distantly, it was not unlike a crib or cot hospitals used for newborn humans after birth. Around the edge of the room Monitors offered readings and rhythmic bleeps as it measured the subjects breathing patterns, brain waves, pulse, blood pressure and heart rate.

Adrian waved off Connors, who stopped at the doorway, just inside the strips of thick plastic that curtained the small room from the lab, Adrian approached and looked down.

The Lynx/Tiger hybrid cub lay on its’…her side on a bed of soft blankets, the cots temperature was regulated with dials and sensors that measured the kittens body temperature. Upon seeing the soft rise and fall of her breathing made Adrian release a breath of his own, one he hadn’t even known he was holding until that moment.  
He glanced to the door and Connors, with his hands resting respectfully behind his back, nodded

“Sir” 

As the one of the city’s’ richest and most influential figures Adrian hardly needed permission but he was hardly going to endanger his subject when it had gotten so close to completion and success.  
But with Connors’ single nod of confirmation, Adrian lowered a hand into the cot, letting his fingers stroke through the thick fur of the subjects’ side.

Her size was similar to that of an average adult house cat, perhaps a little on the larger side but eventually her kitten fur would be shed, with proper diet her weight would even out, and of course she would grow into her overly large paws which seemed almost as large as her own head.

A soft huff left the cub, and her ear twitched, but when Adrian repeated the action a short purr rolled from her tiny, fluffy chest, her rough tongue flicked out to wet her drying nose as she slowly awoke.  
Reassured by the interaction, and continued stability in her condition, as shown by the monitors that surrounded them, Adrian reached into the cot and lifted out the furry bundle, one hand gripping the scruff of the cubs neck firmly but painless to the cub, Adrians’ other hand supported the cubs lower body as he observed her. The beginnings of her black stripes were already noticeable against the mauve/blue of her thick, fluffy coat of fur.

The blinked several times as she became accustomed to the bright sterile light of the lab, at the same time her tail flickered and a front paw twitched, tiny claws contracted around thin air, she would learn to retract them on instinct as she developed.

Her ears looked almost comically large for her small body, she would grow into those too, to some extent at least as Adrian had specified a particular ear type for his experiment, elongated much like the dogs found in Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

In Ancient Egypt dogs had been used as hunters as well as companions for their masters, yet it was cats that were deified, dressed in jewels and thought to bring luck to those who kept them, and when they died, mummified sometimes even buried with their masters in order for them to remain constant companions even in the after-life.  
Adrian had always been more of a cat person.

The eyes of both human and feline met for a split second, the cubs’ vision not yet focused, making out only pale skin, equally pale blue collared shirt and flash of yellow – blond – hair but the humans scent already felt familiar, safe. His expression was stoic, yes, but for the cub it was unlike the cold, unfeeling, dead look the scientists gave her, his scent unlike the chemical, antiseptic smell that made her nose itch and her eyes burn once they had finally opened for the first time.

The cub opened her mouth, and after a few faltering seconds her throat released a sharp, unpractised mewl, a pitiful imitation of the low, rumbling sounds she would create as she aged, Adrian knew, yet with that small, singular chirp, he felt a rush of foreign emotion rise in his chest, it was unexpected for the cool natured man dubbed ‘the worlds smartest man.

One name came to mind as he examined the small, furry bundle: The Ancient Egyptian city and center of worship for the feline goddess Bastet, the city had held the largest collection of mummified of cats within all of Egypt. Testing the name silently in his head, Adrian knew he had chosen well the name for his creation

“Bubastis” 

The ghost of a smile tugging the corners of his mouth, and the cub tilted its head to one side, had Adrian not known better due to his extensive research into feline behaviour and characteristics’ for this singular project, he might have thought she was actually acknowledging his choice.

Bubastis became far more like a shadow at Adrians’ side, until eventually she had to be taken to live permanently at Karnak, her size hardly made an ideal addition to his penthouse suit, at least she had free rein over Karnak, save for several labs and rooms containing Adrians far more priceless pieces of furniture and ornaments, with Karnaks caretakers taking over her care in Adrians’ absences, which became more frequent and lengthy. 

Still, Bubastis was Adrians’ proudest achievement and closest companion. And, when he was the one to bring the world crumbling down in order rebuild it, Bubastis would, unfortunately, also be his biggest regret.

No, no that was wrong…he would never regret creating her or the companionship that grew between them, his regret was that she, had to be the first casualty in his far grander creation of a new world.

A peaceful world.


End file.
